You can reprovision the host with a new image profile, host profile, or vCenter Server location by changing the rule for the host and performing a test and repair compliance operation.

Several options for reprovisioning hosts exist.

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If the VIBs that you want to use support live update, you can use an esxcli software vib command. In that case, you must also update the rule set to use an image profile that includes the new VIBs.

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During testing, you can apply an image profile to an individual host with the Apply-EsxImageProfile cmdlet and reboot the host so the change takes effect. The Apply-EsxImageProfile cmdlet updates the association between the host and the image profile but does not install VIBs on the host.

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In all other cases, use this procedure.

Prerequisites

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Create the image profile you want boot the host with. Use the Image Builder PowerCLI. See "Using vSphere ESXi Image Builder CLI" in the vSphere Installation and Setup documentation.

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Make sure that the setup that you performed during the first boot operation is in place.

Procedure

1

At the PowerShell prompt, run the Connect-VIServer PowerCLI cmdlet to connect to the vCenter Server system that Auto Deploy is registered with.

Connect-VIServer myVCServer

The cmdlet might return a server certificate warning. In a production environment, make sure no server certificate warnings result. In a development environment, you can ignore the warning.

2

Determine the location of a public software depot that contains the image profile that you want to use, or define a custom image profile with the Image Builder PowerCLI.

3

Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot to add the software depot that contains the image profile to the PowerCLI session.

Depot Type

Cmdlet

Remote depot

Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot depot_url.

ZIP file

a

Download the ZIP file to a local file path or create a mount point local to the PowerCLI machine.

b

Run Add-EsxSoftwareDepot C:\file_path\my_offline_depot.zip.

4

Run Get-EsxImageProfile to see a list of image profiles, and decide which profile you want to use.

5

Run Copy-DeployRule and specify the ReplaceItem parameter to change the rule that assigns an image profile to hosts.

The following cmdlet replaces the current image profile that the rule assigns to the host with the my_new_imageprofile profile. After the cmdlet completes, myrule assigns the new image profile to hosts. The old version of myrule is renamed and hidden.

Copy-DeployRule myrule -ReplaceItem my_new_imageprofile

6

Test and repair rule compliance for each host that you want to deploy the image to.